The 2015 edition of The Art of Computing has concluded. So what did our students say?
From the Official ANU Student Survey
Challenging lab assignments which expanded upon the basics taught in the lectures. The labs were also of a good length and assistance was provided throughout. The lectures followed a clearly defined structure, which was helpful for revision.
Engaging, entertaining and knowledgeable lecturer. Snap is a great medium for teaching abstract concepts which might be held back until second or third year due to semantic problems. Interesting practical assignments which can easily be seen to be useful.
This course was incredible.
The foremost strength was the collection of topics covered. I walk away feeling I have been given real, working literacy in an area totally foreign to my normal studies. Additionally, the integration with interdisciplinary application was well done. Pascal is a top-tier lecturer, and brought the course to life.
The assessment schedule encouraged equal dedication to the many different levels of computational problem solving.
I have actively recommended this course to all of my friends. Please keep this course available to students! Especially ones (like myself) outside of the Computer Science degree.
A comprehensive and fun introduction to computing. i’d never done anything with computers before starting and i could mostly keep up with my classmates that had previous experience and were taking other computing classes. the tutors were good at explaining. … very interesting assignments. overall an interesting, fun, challenging (in a good way) course.
We also conducted an unofficial anonymous survey with a few more detailed questions, here is what we heard:
I'd never done any computing before but was interested as I use computers so often and am probably just going to use them more and more throughout my degree and career.
I wanted to obtain some measure of literacy in the field of computing and computational problem solving. As an Arts/Law student very few opportunities are available.
I thought it would be a more relevant course to take, rather than the discovering engineering course, which was my other option.
YES! And more. The syllabus was great.
I didn't know what to expect but I learnt a lot. I particularly enjoyed learning about computational thinking and applying that to other disciplines.
I learned more than I expected to learn. This was a really great class.
Don't underestimate the value of the course, simply because it starts with a visual programming language - you will learn a lot of advanced content.
Keep asking questions until you understand, even if it feels like you're repeating yourself.
Yes - I think having some experience with such a wide range of algorithms and applications of computer science, and well as knowing more about circuits and binary, will enable me to learn more about these areas at a faster pace than if they were new concepts.
Absolutely. It has given me some measure of functional literacy of computational methods and systems.
I think it's taught me a different way of thinking through problems and given me a deeper appreciation to the complexity of computers and programs I use everyday.
I'm planning on doing a degree in computer science, with a focus on artificial intelligence.
Probably not right now but that's more to do with wanting to other things more, I'm not opposed to computing, the craft of computing looks interesting.
This class was incredible - I very much hope it remains available for students outside of the CECS world.
Thank you for running this course, I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity